Life transformed through education

Pictured: Sher Mu La Wee, UTS Diversity Access Scholarship recipient

Your support will help our students to create a better future for us all

Every year, UTS gives around $20 million in scholarships to students, both in recognition of achievement and reflection of financial hardship. We know these awards tangibly help talented and ambitious students such as Burmese refugee and UTS nursing student Sher Mu La Wee, reach their educational goals. In fact, sometimes a scholarship can mean the difference between completing a course of study, and not.

UTS nursing student Sher Mu La Wee overcame unimaginable adversity to positively transform her life through education, with the invaluable support of a UTS scholarship.

Sher's resolve to become a nurse was strengthened with an experience few Australians could imagine. Sher and her family spent several months hiding in the jungle after their village was burned to the ground in a military junta attack in 1994. "We had no food or shelter. Many babies were born, and many of the elderly became ill from diarrhoea, malaria, yellow fever, and dengue fever. Some people had gunshot wounds. Some were starving. My mother and my two brothers almost died.

From a young age, Sher understood the power of education to transform lives.

"My mother, who was a nurse, would say to me 'I have no money, no jewellery, no gold to give to you, but the thing I want to tell you is education can make you a better person, give you successful life'."

Despite spending twelve years in a refugee camp on the Burma-Thai border, Sher never gave up the quest for a new life.

"UTS is like my family, my second home. I have the best life here, I am so lucky."

"Living in those sheltered walls, it seems there's nothing there for you," Sher says. "But I kept believing because I knew that one day a door would open for me, and that I would have an opportunity to study at university level."

In 2010 Sher was offered a place to study nursing at UTS which she stresses would have been impossible without receiving a UTS Diversity Access Scholarship.

"It helped me in many ways, freeing me from financial worries to allow me to focus on my studies," she says.

Excited at the prospect of graduating in May - Sher likens her experience at UTS winning the lottery. "UTS is like my family, my second home. I have the best life here, I am so lucky."

Your support will change lives

We work with all our students to try to ensure all have an equal chance of completing their education, and are equipped to go on to realise their dreams. This support may even include grants for basic living expenses such as food, electricity and gas, rental assistance, transport, medical and course materials and with the ever-increasing costs of living, the demand for this assistance is growing dramatically.

We are raising money now to enable us to continue this life-changing assistance into the upcoming university year and beyond and your support will truly make a difference. You can help support more students like Sher - please donate today.

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